The Best American Mystery Series are all excellent collections of Mysteries in the short story form.. a difficult art form where each sentence, each plot line has to be close to perfect or it stands out like Wall Street financiers in a soup line. Each year has a different working editor who winnows down the list of nominees to the twenty or so who make the cut.. in 2009, the editor is Jeffery Deaver. Each year may have one or at the most two stories that are simply not quite as excellent as the rest.. a matter of preference. Among this years authors are the well knowns such as Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, and Chuck Hogan, as well as relative lesser lights who are still capable of minor masterpieces in this demanding craft. ( )

I upgraded this collection to three stars because the very best stories are very, very good--unforgettably good. I have always been happy with the "Best American" series in the past, so I'm putting this weak edition down to the taste of Jeffery Deaver, the guest editor, whose taste I imagine I simply don't share. Personally, with the exception of about four extraordinary stories, I enjoyed my last issue of Strand Magazine more than this collection as a whole. ( )

A good collection of crime fiction. The stories are generally well put together, though some of the selections are a little uneven. There's a wide range of types of stories and points of view, and the collection flows pretty well from story to story. These are not, as one might mistakenly think, detective stories - they're not necessarily the kinds of stories one would find shelved in the mystery section - but they all offer interesting perspectives on crime and criminals. ( )